Do I need a permit to place a dumpster in Westmount?
On your private land — the driveway, the yard — we found no applicable certificate: the word “conteneur” appears nowhere in the 82 pages of permit and certificate by-law 1634, and its closed list of seventeen certificates of authorization covers no such case. One honest reservation: section 47 7° targets “the installation of a temporary building or structure”, a term the by-law does not define — in doubt, the Urban Planning department confirms at 514 989-5219 (permis@westmount.org). On the street, the answer is clear-cut: yes, with a certificate from the Engineering department. And the job site itself almost always needs a permit: in Westmount, renovation requires one with no cost threshold (by-law 1634, s. 38).
Does Westmount's by-law 1621 allow a dumpster on the street, with an Engineering certificate?
Yes — and it is better documented here than almost anywhere else. By-law 1621 names the dumpster among the temporary occupations of the public domain that can be authorized (s. 2.5 1° a), and the municipal permits page says it plainly: a permit is required to occupy a City street or any municipal property with construction equipment, “debris containers” included. The application is emailed to genie@westmount.org at least 72 hours (3 days) before installation, and “the terms vary by street and by season”. It is often the only possible spot south of Sherbrooke, where the 1890-1914 row houses do not all have a driveway. Call us before filing the application: we give you the box's exact footprint.
How much does street occupancy cost for a dumpster?
The City publishes its rates: $0.13 per square foot per day on the street, sidewalk or in a lane; $0.33 per square foot per day on a parking space in a permit or pay-by-plate zone; $253.25 per day for the complete closure of a street or lane of traffic. Our own calculation, from the municipal rate: a 20-yard dumpster covers about 8 ft by 14 ft, or 112 sq ft — around $14.56 per day on the street. The applicable rate is the one “in force at the time the application is filed” (by-law 1621, s. 3.3), and the certificate holder answers for the equipment's cleanliness, for damage, and for returning the premises to their initial state when the occupation ends.
My row house has no driveway: how does it work?
That is the classic case on the plateau south of Sherbrooke — the townhouses of the Victoria / Somerville, Blenheim Place and Staynor Park sectors, built almost entirely between 1890 and 1914. The street is the solution the City provides for: a certificate from the Engineering department, application 72 hours ahead, a published per-square-foot rate. Two rules worth knowing in the meantime: parking is limited to four hours on all Westmount streets, and at night (11 p.m. to 8 a.m.) it requires a special permission, capped at 30 nights per vehicle per year. When work makes a driveway or garage inaccessible, Public Security issues an exceptional permission at 514 989-5225 — the City itself provides for this case.
With no drop-off centre in Westmount, do Côte-des-Neiges and LaSalle replace a dumpster?
Westmount has no écocentre: a demerged city within the agglomeration, it sends its residents to Montréal's — Côte-des-Neiges (6925 chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges) and LaSalle (7272 rue Saint-Patrick), on proof of address on the island. Drop-off is free up to 12 m³ per year, then $31 per extra m³, with a cap of 15 visits per year for construction residue, in a vehicle under 11 m — closed Mondays, and Sundays in winter. Yet a single 20-yard dumpster holds 15.3 m³: an average job site exceeds the free annual quota in one single rental. Add that garbage, bulky item and green waste collections all refuse construction materials, and the arithmetic is quick: a 10-yard box holds 7.6 m³, a 20 yard 15.3 m³, a 40 yard 30.6 m³.
Why does the dumpster's spot depend on trees in Westmount?
Because by-law 1625, in force since 2025, requires around every worksite tree 5 cm in diameter or more an optimal protection zone fenced to 1.2 m, installed before work begins, at 1.5 m from the trunk (diameter of 0.19 m or less), 3.5 m (0.2 to 0.3 m) or 6 m (0.4 m and up) — and “No construction material or soil fragments are permitted within the OPZ”. If vehicles must drive through it, a geotextile membrane covered with at least 0.3 m of mulch is required. Illegal felling costs $2,500 plus $500 to $1,000 per tree, up to $15,000, doubled on a repeat offence. With 10,000 municipal trees, half of them on streets, our drivers pick the box's spot outside those zones — and we tell you when you book.
Will the dumpster damage my driveway?
In Westmount the question carries extra weight: “all of Westmount has heritage value”, the urban plan writes, most buildings being of red brick or grey stone — and the driveways match. Every one of our dumpsters is delivered with the PROTEC-O-SOL system, built-in planks that spread the load and protect the surface. Nothing to supply, nothing extra to pay. Our drivers' tip, for full protection: lay four flattened cardboard boxes, or a thin sheet of plywood, on the chosen spot before the truck arrives. And on a slope — the mountainside averages 12.5% — the drop-off angle and wheel chocking get settled when you book.